A two-dimensional sheet of galaxies between two southern voids.
Abstract
The question of examining real data for possible interconnections between voids has prompted the discovery of a striking two-dimensional sheet of galaxies (including NGC and ESO galaxies) forming the interface to voids in Eridanus and Sculptor. We define a void in terms of its emptiness and note that structures revealed using all available redshifts, south of declination -17 1/2^deg^, agree with those found in controlled surveys (cf. Fairall and Jones 1988 with da Costa et al., 1988), that is, voids are void of all galaxies, regardless of luminosity, size or type. In fact, the greater number of redshifts enables us to make a more detailed examination in three dimensions. Using casement displays (Chambers et al., 1983) we find a significant over-density, or wall, of galaxies, some 650 km s^-1^ thick (approximately 2000, 2000 km s^-1^ wide) forming the interface to Sculptor and Eridanus. Tests, which include fitting to the gravitothermodynamics distribution function (Saslaw, 1985), reveal that galaxies in the wall are distributed in Poisson fashion, with a slight tendency to gravitational relaxation (b = -0.15). A preliminary examination of other void interfaces reveals a mixture of apparent interconnections and walls.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- March 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990A&A...229...75M
- Keywords:
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- Galactic Clusters;
- Red Shift;
- Distribution Functions;
- Sky Surveys (Astronomy);
- Astrophysics